Change is constant in nature. Nothing ever stays the same. As a lifelong student of the Cascades, I have always been fascinated by the process of change that is continually on display in our mountains. Wolf Rock, near McKenzie Bridge, is a great place to ponder natural changes on a grand scale.

Wolf Rock is the largest monolith in Oregon. A monolith is a geologic formation that consists of one single immense rock. Wolf Rock towers 900 feet above the forest floor.

By comparison, the famous Haystack Rock at Cannon Beach rises a mere 235 feet above the sand. The powerful forces of glaciers, wind and water exposed the gigantic Wolf Rock massif as erosion slowly worked away at the surrounding softer landscape.

Consisting of a very hard volcanic rock called andesite, Wolf Rock is the resistant plug of a 40-million-year-old stratovolcano that may have been as tall as Mt. Jefferson. The volcanic cone disappeared bit by bit over the millennia and the huge solidified magma core is all that remains.

More on the 'mega rock'

Despite its size, this mega rock is not known to many besides a handful of rock climbers and a few Forest Service employees. If you were to ask most Oregonians if they’ve ever heard of it, you would probably be met with puzzled looks and blank stares. Wolf Rock is one of Oregon’s best-kept secrets. No signs direct drivers to it and there is no parking lot or gleaming restroom waiting for visitors. Its remoteness has kept its secret safe.

A trail of billowing dust follows my car as I navigate the maze of gravel roads to the base of Wolf Rock. I catch a tantalizing glimpse of its prominence through the windshield but it immediately disappears behind a curtain of trees. I still can’t see the rock when I stop and get out of the car but its hulking presence is almost palpable. I walk a short way along the road and come to a break in the trees.

Above me towers an enormous vertical wall. Ages ago a huge slab broke away leaving a 60-foot overhanging arch as a façade. I find the trace of a rough trail and it leads me up past a talus apron of boulders and rubble to the base of the wall. Here, I feel a bit like a flea on an elephant’s toe. I know I’m on something enormous, but it’s impossible to see its true magnitude from here.

'Change is constant in nature'

The rock is warm and rough to the touch. Lichens cover the surface and contribute to the process of turning rock into soil in their small but important way. Lichens are crusty growths that can sustain themselves without soil. As pioneering organisms they are the first settlers on the frontier of bare rock. They secrete acids that crumble the rock’s surface and create tiny pockets of poor soil. Moss can then gain a foothold. As some of the mosses die, organic material is built up. Soon a seed bed is created for larger plants. Eventually, trees take root and a forest is born.

Frustrated with my inability to see all of Wolf Rock at once, I decide to head for nearby Carpenter Mountain. That summit will provide the vantage point from which to see the rock in its entirety.

The Carpenter Mountain Trail is just over a mile long. I make good time up the well-defined route, stopping only to sample the huckleberries from the bushes that line the trail. Halfway up I traverse a steep meadow marked with tiny blue flags denoting scientific study plots for botanists and entomologists working in this research area. One switchback turn through the forest brings me to a view of the lookout building perched on Carpenter’s rocky summit. Scrambling up the boulders covering the last few yards to the top, I am finally rewarded with an unobstructed view of Wolf Rock.

It rises above the thick forest like a tall ship anchored in a dark green sea. A long vertical crack divides the western end of the rock from its main body. A line of maturing firs marches up this narrow cleft. The huge arch that I stood under earlier is a tiny pockmark on the rock’s lower surface. Wolf Rock is a colossal monolith.

Gazing in wonder, I think about how long it will take before this massif is reduced to soil. As the relentless forces of time take their toll, this citadel will be reduced to a rounded mound of forest duff covered in tall trees. Change is constant in nature. Nothing ever stays the same.

Wolf Rock

Directions: From Springfield, take Highway 126 east. Near milepost 44, turn left on Road 15 and go 4.3 miles. Turn right on Road 1506 and drive 7 miles to Road 350. Turn left and drive 5.8 miles to a rocky pullout on the right. The Carpenter Mountain Trail starts 100 feet up the road.